1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, systems, and products for controlling a GUI display for a plug-in.
2. Description of Related Art
Many software infrastructures allow customers to write custom pluggable software components (“plug-ins”) to meet their individual software needs. If a single static graphical user interface (“GUI”) manages the software system, plug-ins are not able to use the product's GUI because such GUIs do not extend interfaces through applications so as to make GUI functions accessible to plug-ins. GUIs often do not extend interfaces through applications so as to make GUI functions accessible to plug-ins because an application supporting plug-ins often has a proprietary look and fell effected through its GUI, a proprietary look and feel that may be the subject of considerable investment on the part of its developer. Some applications support plug-ins with text-based configuration files or even hard code configuration parameters, requiring recompilation of the application in order to incorporate a plug-in. Other applications use web services portlets to support GUIs, requiring development of separate GUI functions for the plug-ins. Both these approaches risk GUI style differences from the supporting application because they both put full GUI control in the hands of the plug-in. GUI styles in plug-ins that differ from the GUI style of a supporting application are undesirable because the hosting parent supporting application may lose control of the overall look and feel of its GUI presentation to users.